I waited until the end of the year for a 70+ mile ride.

22 December 2021

One of the birds I was about to miss for the year was Red-necked Grebe. Usually there's a couple birds reported around and there were a couple this year, but they were either never relocated, photos showed a Pied-billed Grebe, I never found them or didn't get to try for them for whatever reason. On the 21st, Steve Mlodinow found/refound a Red-necked Grebe at Aurora Reservoir. One had been reported there off and on this "winter" but not seen with any frequency, or maybe people were't looking. Steve also had a Snow Bunting, so I decided to hydrate and carb load and just go for it the next morning. 

I had scouted out the route to Aurora Reservoir via google maps a few times, but now it was time to actually ride it. The first 18 miles was to and through Cherry Creek State Park, which was no biggie. I know that route too well. The last 13 miles or so were all new roads and paths. The beauty of the Denver metro is I was able to ride from Cherry Creek almost to the reservoir on bike paths! Of course I had never been on these miles of paths, they split at 5 point intersections what seemed like a dozen times, and I had to check my map about 10 times, but at least I only made one wrong turn along the way. It turns out it's slightly uphill what seemed like most of the way from Cherry Creek to Aurora Reservoir. Upon getting to the reservoir, it took a minute to actually see where the gate was to access the park and figure out how to get around. 

It took about 2.5 hours of riding just to get there, then I had to ride around on the path to start birding! There were SO MANY BIRDS. The "winter" has been so warm that there's no ice on the big reservoirs yet. Not good for many reasons, but good for cycling and birding, and good if you want to look through bazillions of geese and gulls. I rode around to the swim beach and meet up with Kevin Williams who was on the grebe when I arrived! I got out my scope and got on it as well. The grebe is Green Big Year Bird #283!

Poor digiscope of the Red-necked Grebe!

Thanks to Kevin for this. I was pretty whooped after riding there, 
and there's no shame in sitting and scoping (and eating)!

This beast of an Iceland Gull (Thayer's) flew in and landed nearby.

We think this is a Cackling x Ross's Goose hybrid

After we got the grebe and scoped the reservoir quite a bit, we went to where the Snow Bunting had been the day before. I didn't think we'd find it and we didn't. But there were THOUSANDS of Cackling Geese to look through. I put 15,000 Cackling on my list at the end of the day. No joke! I looked through the majority of them for a Brant and didn't find one. But I found several Greater White-fronted Geese, the Snow Goose below, 3 Ross's Geese, and several likely Snow x Cackling Goose hybrids. I ended up with quite decent number of species for December.

This blue Snow Goose caught me off guard. I assumed it was another wonky hybrid, but alas it was not!

Nice scenery looking west from the dam.

Those are lines of Cackling Geese.

I worked around the reservoir for snow bunting and anything else I could find. No bunting, no brant, etc. At least I got one bird for the year. The weather was pretty good for a LONG day in the saddle. And the views were really nice. On the bright side, I knew the way back to Cherry Creek and it was mostly downhill. It took me 20% less time getting home. Thank goodness too, because I was sore. This was my longest ride in years. This ride also happened at the end of a year when I've ridden more miles than I have in probably 8-9 years! I'm over 3100 miles now. Phew! 

Anyway, as I was riding very slow through a neighborhood a couple miles from home, I had my THIRD Common Redpoll of year flyover calling. I guess there's perks of riding a whopping 10 mph when you're completely worn out and sore. I've now had a single redpoll in each of 3 counties and all within 3 miles of my house. 

At this point, I'm fairly certain Joe would have said to just pack it in and call it a year, job well done. But I'm stubborn and I had to try for more birds. I stop at dark on the 31st :) And with that, Joe would be rolling his eyes, but say something funny and complementary, I hope. I think Joe would be honored with what we've done this year. It's been a blast.

The view from the south end of Cherry Creek State Park was quite lovely.

This is why I was tired!!!

Totals:
Green Big Year species list: 283 (as of Dec 22)
2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List

Pledge or donate here to the new Joe Roller Memorial Grant. Thank you.

https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/

Thanks for reading!
Scott